The Registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, has urged Nigerian youths to seek demonstrable skills as a means of survival, warning that very soon university degrees will no longer be the sole guarantors of jobs.
Oloyede said this on Thursday at Kwara State University, Malete, while delivering the convocation lecture, titled “Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning -Prerequisites of the Digital Age.”
According to him, “new opportunities will emerge in the high-tech sector, and many skills that were not otherwise taught in conventional schools would be needed. Degrees would no longer be the sole guarantee of jobs, but demonstrable skills would.
“In this regard, there won’t be meaningful difference between the literates and the illiterates without the cutting-edge skills that are associated with the triad – learning, unlearning, and relearning.”
He also said that the imperative of the triad in life cannot be overemphasized as the tonic that gives vitality to successful living in today’s information age.
He explained: “Those who can learn, unlearn, and relearn are the successful ones, and those without the mindset that accommodates the triad are bound to perpetually lament.”
He also said that the world of today is different from the stone age, stressing that “one of the factors responsible for this change is the totality of what makes the information age, which is still evolving as technology develops rapidly.”
He further said that the dynamism of the world provides new opportunities and threats, adding that while there are new opportunities in information technology, the existing jobs as typists, receptionists, traditional printers, telephone booth operators, computer operators, factory workers, cashiers, travel agents, and fuel attendants, among others, are on the verge of extinction.
The JAMB registrar also alerted the audience, and indeed, Nigerians, to be prepared for the challenges of the information age.
According to him, “the onus of responsibility lies on everyone to get prepared for the challenges of the information age by taking lifelong learning seriously and being willing to change as the circumstances unfold.”
The Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Shaykh-Luqman Jimoh, expressed optimism earlier in his address that the lecture would broaden the horizons of the audience.
He said, “Because we live in an era of unprecedented technological advancements, the lecture today would broaden our horizons. This is equally true when our educational institutions must become catalysts for transformation, preparing our graduates not just for the challenges of today but for the rapidly evolving landscape of the digital age.”